Mobile Learning

A new application by software developer Comverse Technology allows the immersive 3D environment, Second Life, to be accessed on internet-connected mobile devices running Java ME. SMS and video streaming can also be integrated between Second Life’s virtual world and the real one.

What does this mean? Well, for a start, Second Life characters are becoming increasingly like real people. Being able to SMS, text, and video-chat with Second Life Characters on both your computer and mobile phone is making these avatars as substantial (or at least, as accessible) as many flesh-and-blood friends and contacts.

Could it be long before virtual avatars begin to blur the boundaries between real and scripted conversation? Try having a chat with a completely automated chat generator; sometimes, it can be eerily like having a chat with a real person. Imagine being able to ask a virtual avatar questions we might ordinarily ask a teacher, and getting back instant guidance or feedback. As a test, I asked the automated chat generator “What is the meaning of life?” and it immediately shot back the very interesting answer “To pursue happiness for ourselves and those we love”. Although that’s a programmed response to a fairly common question, it might not be long until we can “call” a virtual “professor” and ask them questions like “What is the scientific name for the wolf?” or “How do I make a berry souffle?” and get meaningful, useful – and reliable – answers.

Being able to access a virtual guide or mentor from mobile devices could make for learning opportunities – anytime, anywhere, for help with almost anything. While it’s going to be decades before virtual avatars have the intelligence to weight issues – and thus go beyond supplying simple facts or opinions – a lot of the time, all we really need are the facts or opinions, to which we can apply our own intelligence to construct knowledge and make decisions; that, too, is learning.

[Link: Second Life Reuters via Connected Learning Community]

technorati tags:second life, secondlife, 3d, virtual, world, avatar, comverse, technology, education, sms, text, video, mlearning, m-learning, mobile learning, mobile-learning, mobilelearning

Tony Vincent at Learning in Hand has reported a new freeware math game for Palm and Windows Mobile users called ArithmeTick.  The game helps students become faster at mathematical basic skills – addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, with points awarded depending on how quickly the problem was answered, and extra time for each correct answer.

This would be a good game for drilling basic skills at primary level or with literacy and numeracy support groups among older learners.  Educators involved with teaching math to secondary or adult learners may also be interested in Math4Mobile, which facilitates learning about more advanced mathematical concepts – equations, graphing, fitting graphcs, and quadrilateral geometry.

technorati tags:math4mobile, arithmetick, math, mathematics, education, pda, m-learning, mlearning, mobile-learning, mobilelearning, mobile learning

Mogopop is a free Web 2.0 site that allows you to create interactive movies, “sites” and books for iPods. It incorporates an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editing system, and a built-in iPod preview window so you can see how your content will look on your iPod, as you create it.

Here’s a video introduction to Mogopop:

http://resources.mogopop.com/help/what_is.mov

Given that iPods are probably second only to mobile phones in terms of ownership, and provide rich media features and storage capacities not yet available in mobile phones, I’d say using iPods as a publishing platform might be very useful for a number of educators out there.

(via e-Clippings (learning as art)) 

technorati tags:mogopop, ipod, content, m-learning, mlearning, mobile learning, mobile-learning, mobilelearning, apple, interactive

Thank you to Stephanie Rieger, who continues to inform and inspire me.  She’s posted a comment on an earlier post to let me know the Good News – and I’m not just talking about Christmas. It seems that Adobe have released a new version of the Flash Lite Player, which is free of charge and capable of playing standalone SWF files.  You can download it here.

What does this mean for educators?

Well… for one, it means that developers whose favourite IDE happens to be Flash – (like, say, me, for example!) – are going to have a lot of fun, creating new learning experiences that can be deployed to mobile- and web- based learning environments and learner devices.

It also means that if you’ve got a favourite Flash file which you’ve used in the past to deliver learning experiences to learners on the web… it’s quite possible that that material could now be utilised in mobile environments as well.  Here in Australia, Flash is used heavily in the development of Flexible Learning Toolboxes, and the use of Flash was previously a considerable inhibitor to repurposing Toolboxes for mobile devices; now, it seems, porting these valuable resources for mobile use has come a step closer to reality.

Now… does anyone have a wish list of mobile Flash applications for education that they’d like me to develop and make available here?

technorati tags:m-learning, mlearning, mobile learning, mobile-learning, mobilelearning, flash, flash lite, adobe, macromedia, swf, player, clcommunity

The internationally popular MobileCrunch blog speculates it may be the “ultimate mobile media platform,” and it’s the innovation of one of our own, Australian entrepreneur Ben Keighran.

Bluepulse is a free Mobile Web 2.0 application that installs easily on almost any mobile phone (you don’t even need to know what kind of phone you have), and promises the ultimate in mobile multitasking through the innovative use of widgets running within the Bluepulse application. This makes it quick to switch between widgets without losing any data, and the widgets themselves are more functional and powerful than most stand-alone mobile web applications.  There are all the usual suspects: MSN or Yahoo messengers, Flickr, Blogger blogging tools, GMail, Email, chat and weather.  Some others I’ve never seen on any other mobile platform before include traffic camera locations, and a blood alcohol tester.

MobileCrunch has the scoop:

Looking at bluepulse 2.0 in its totality you’re really facing a pretty significant leap forward in mobile application platforms. And make no mistake about it, this is a full fledged mobile multimedia platform that allows users to create a detailed user profile including photos and videos, an ever growing array of mobile widgets that helpyou do everything from checking the traffic or surf to planning what you’re going to watch on the tele tonight (plus digg, flickr, gmail and more), as well as chat in various chat rooms while browsing your new friends “places” while chatting, and last but not least, bluepulse has its own built in messaging application that allows you to text friends AND broadcast messages.

I’ve seen quite a number of mobile applications in the last twelve months and many have been very comprehensive but I do not believe thatI’ve seen a single platform that had as many different functions as bluepulse 2.0; especially not one with the diversity of widgets or the ability to run on so many phones.

You can get Bluepulse on your mobile by browsing to http://get.bluepulse.com/. 

The included widgets already have great potential for use in the delivery of mobile learning strategies, but Bluepulse is also similar to a mobile learning platform for mobile devices I’m currently developing, in terms of its widget-based architecture to enable seamless data sharing between applications such as QR-Code reader, browser, progress/gradebook and learning content. I’ve felt such an m-learning platform needs to be developed, as there’s no existing software out there that’s actually designed specifically for enabling a broad, integrated range of m-learning opportunities.

technorati tags:bluepulse, widget, mobile, mobile phone, cellphone, m-learning, mlearning, mobile-learning, mobilelearning, mobile learning, education, technology, educational, edutech, web2.0, mobile2.0

Chris Davies at Slashphone provides an interesting report on Nokia Research’s latest ideas in digital mobile mobility with a look at Nokia’s proof-of-concept of augmented reality – “superimposing data on an image of your surroundings in real time”.

According to Picturephoning.com, the MARA prototype application uses accelerometers in all three axes to determine orientation, a tilt compensated compass for heading, and GPS for positioning to overlay virtual information on the phone’s display from its integrated camera’s point of view. Chris at Slashphone continues:

“URLs can be associated with objects, giving quick access to local information, and the device can both use data locally-stored or from a remote server… The prototype also has mapfunctionality, accessed by holding the handset horizontally, whichhighlights the user’s location and annotates nearby points of interest.”

This has fantastic possibilities for situated mobile learning. Information (or rather, learning opportunities) could be readily identifiable to a learner using nothing but their mobile phone; or mobile learning resources could point a learner to a nearby geographic location or object, enabling the learner to go over and examine it more closely.

More information on this interesting development via Technology Review, SmartMobs, and at the Nokia Research page on Mara.

technorati tags:augmented reality, mara, nokia, research, labs, gps, m-learning, mlearning, mobile-learning, mobilelearning, mobile learning

Here’s a set of great free Java midlets for learning about several secondary-level mathematical concepts, such as graphing of various equations, equation solving, sketching graphs, fitting graphs to data, and quadrilateral geometry: Math4Mobile.

The functionality of each application has been based on sound pedagogical principles: for example, the development page states the development team’s understanding that “learning is a social-cultural process and teachers and peers are part of the individual cognitive process”. The social-constructivist aspects of teaching and learning theory are reflected in the functionality of these midlets – they integrate with the multimedia messaging capabilities of phones, to enable graphs, diagrams and work to be captured and shared between peers, teachers or mentors. The midlets take full advantage of the mobile phone keypad for interaction and data input, and each one is supported by a set of lesson plans/learning activities that utilise each midlet.

All of the midlets work on mobile phones supporting Java 2 Mobile Edition (J2ME) with a screen resolution greater than 128×96 pixels (which, by my recent research, includes the vast majority of mobile phones sold in Australia within the last two years). Technically, the implementation aligns favourably with best practices in mobile application design.

Math4Mobile is a project of the Institute for Alternatives in Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Haifa. Thanks to Arik, from the development team of Math4Mobile, for bringing this to my attention, and well done!

Maths can be a challenging subject especially – when some students have out of date math books and calculators. Studying hard sometimes isn’t enough: get the help you need with new applications that are available now.

technorati tags:java, j2me, midlet, mathematics, maths, graphic, algebra, equations, geometry, social, constructivism, connectivism, m-learning, mlearning, mobile-learning, mobilelearning, mobile learning, graphing, education, flexible, learning, mobile

Combining elements of game-based learning and mobile learning is this neat, free resource: Escher Mobile. It’s a program that runs on Java-enabled mobile phones, PDAs, and PCs, and enables the user to create Escher-esque symmetrical images, thus enabling the learner to “effortlessly master the main crystallographic concepts: planar groups, asymmetric unit, Hermann-Mauguin symbols, General and special positions, Symmetry operations”.

Incredibly, it’s true. Not only does this application make the fundamentals of crystallography a cinch, but it’s been designed to actually be a lot of fun (e.g. the page above loads up with a web-enabled version of the application, which allows you to make crystalline versions of a cheerful rubber ducky – check out the very cool P6mm rotationally symmetrical (smirk) “Duck Crystal” – no pun intended – on the right) (click it for a larger version).

The web page makes acquiring the software on your phone as easy as possible too – it offers delivery via email, WAP or SMS direct to your phone, or a downloadable version for the user to transfer to their phone themselves.

Finally, it offers users the ability to save images created with the program, email them to anyone, or even submit designs to the Mobile Escher Gallery, on the Escher Mobile website. What a fantastic, fun, m-learning resource!

Thanks to Alex Hayes and Dr Jeffrey Crass of TAFE NSW for sharing this site with me!

technorati tags:game, crystallography, escher, mobile, m-learning, mlearning, mobilelearning, mobile-learning, crystal, symmetry, cellphone, gamebasedlearning, j2me, flexiblelearning, clcommunity, networkedlearning, e-learning, elearning

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I don’t usually blog commercial mobile applications, but this one stands out from the usual offerings. Clicker is a neat application for most mobile platforms – PDAs, mobile phones and converged devices – that allow you to control many applications on your desktop PC using the wireless capabilities of your mobile device.

For example, the software allows you to wirelessly control a PowerPoint presentation using your cellphone or PDA, so you can free yourself from the lectern; or use your PC as a jukebox, with your mobile phone or PDA working as a “remote”. It supports iTunes and Windows Media Player out of the box, and is apparently extensible using JScript or VBScript.

As it works with both Bluetooth and Wireless LAN, it has the potential to be used on the widest range of mobile wireless devices.

(via Mobile Musings)

technorati tags:clicker, salling, pda, powerpoint, wireless, control, remote, cellphone, mobilephone, mobile-phone, mobile-learning, m-learning, mlearning, mobilelearning

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The Guardian reports on the success of SMS-based answer services in the UK. The Guardian itself, as well as Google, Yahoo, and askmenow.com all run their own versions of services that allow questions to be SMS-ed in for answering; askmenow.com charges nothing for automated answers, or just US 49c for it premium service.

“But Britain seems to be leading with premium text messaging. Sarah
McVittie, CEO of 82ASK (which corresponds to the keys 82275 on a mobile
keyboard), reckons it has answered a million questions since 2003 and
is expanding at 20% a month largely by word of mouth. It employs 120
“textperts” including PhD students who get paid £6 to £10 an hour, or
by the answer… It is about the “instant gratification of getting right answers
immediately” in a way that is easier than opening a mobile browser.
Since mobile page impressions have been static for years, she thinks
they have a window of opportunity to change the way people get
information. [emphasis added -L]

Even bigger is AQA (issuebits.co.uk, shortcode 63336), which launched
in April 2004 and claims to have answered 3m questions and now deals
with 10,000 a day. It has 550 researchers, all working from home, who
are paid 30p a question, with the rest divvied up among operator,
government and the company. Paul Cocerton, one of three ex-Psion people
behind it, claims they often take less than a minute to answer. Like
82ASK, they have access to a bank of past questions (those are the
quick ones) as well as mainstream sources. He claims his researchers
don’t use Google much because it just takes too long. The slowness of
search engines, he adds, is one of the reasons for AQA’s existence, and
that 85% of queries are answered in five minutes. Questions range from
getting pink shoes in Bath to personal relationships. One obsessive
asked 20 questions on car headlights.

I tested them both by asking how many people were alive compared with
all who had ever lived. 82ASK came back within five minutes stating
that an estimated 106.4bn people have lived since humans appeared, so
5.8% of all people ever born are alive today. AQA came back with a
similar answer after 22 minutes. On Monday morning – real query this
one – I asked both to find me a hotel in Ireland within half an hour of
Rosslare en route to Westmeath. Both gave me two hotels with embedded
telephone numbers within 15 minutes but 82ASK was two minutes quicker
and gave prices as well.”

I’m not yet aware of a commercial mobile learning/information service like these operating in Australia, but I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out…

technorati tags:sms, mlearning, m-learning, mobile-learning, mobilelearning, mobile, learning, askmenow, textmessage, testing, clcommunity, talo, networkedlearning

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